Wonderworld
by Lavender McLaggen
Summary: After seeing her daddy killed by YouKnowWho, Ruby wakes up as a student in Hogwarts. Can she solve the mystery of why she has gone back in time and save her daddy's life?


Ruby came home from her school in Wyoming to find her parents were very excited. Although she'd had a long trip on the school bus as it went further and further away from the town all the way to the small but delightful house she and her parents lived in on the prairie, she of course was more than happy to listen to their news. She collected her pet snake Sue, an albino python whose markings were a pale lemon yellow on ivory, and whose pink eyes were an exact match for her Vespa. Sue had shown up one day and Ruby had fallen in love with her at first glance. She had been quite small at the time and hadn't been at all surprised when Sue told her in a soft and sibilant voice that she had been purchased by mean people who had only wanted her when she was a little snake, and who had thrown her out when she ate their pet guinea pig one day. She had slithered across the prairie until she had heard Ruby's friendly voice and decided that surely here was a little girl who would help her. From that day the two of them had been inseparable, and Ruby had taught Sue the way of vegetarianism, for she respected all living things and couldn't bear the thought of eating meat, much to her parents' surprise, for there was nothing they liked better than a nice thick juicy piece of meat sliding between their lips. She lifted Sue from its neat and luxurious terrarium, wrapped it round her shoulders, sat down at the kitchen table, spread out her math homework and tucked her long shiny mane of red hair behind her delicately shaped ears. She crossed her long, slender ivory legs and listened to her excited parents while easily finishing her math for the rest of the week.

"We have good news for you," her father said, putting a slice of the apple tart he was so justly famed for in front of her.

"We know how tiring it is for you to have to travel so far to school," her daddy said, handing her an emerald bottle of Perrier.

"Oh, it's no trouble," Ruby said, as cheerful as ever. "I have plenty of time to talk to all my friends and do most of my homework during the trip."

"How cheerful and unassuming you always are," her daddy said, "But you won't have to travel so much in future, because we're going to move --"

"To south California!" her parents said in unison.

"Oh," Ruby said. She was a little bit disappointed to leave school before she could be prom queen, but she always wanted the best for everyone she knew and her father and her daddy both looked so very happy. "Will you be able to find a job there, Father?' she asked.

"Oh yes," he said. "I've been offered a cooking show on a local channel. And your daddy's been promoted - they always seem to need new real estate agents in that part of California. The branch office is in Sunnydale."

"Sunnydale?" Ruby asked. "Is that in 90210?"

"No," her father said. "It's closer to Neptune." He ruffled her long red hair, which fell back into place in wave after shining wave.

Ruby smiled up at her parents happily. She knew they had been worried about how difficult it was for her to have a social life in the middle of the prairie, and felt they must have decided to move for her sake.

Sunnydale High was a bright, friendly-looking school, and Ruby felt very optimistic as she walked through the corridors. She smiled at another new student, a short blonde girl who looked a little lost and a Japanese boy and strangely familiar red-haired girl who were chattering in Japanese and laughing at passers-by. Ruby was about to tell them not to worry, they'd all soon be the best of friends when a taller dark-haired girl rushed in and took her arm.

"Hi, I'm Cordelia," she said, sweeping Ruby away from the other girl. "Where do you get your eyebrows shaped? They're magnificent. And what's your name?"

"Hello," Ruby said with a smile that looked shy on the outside but that promised warmth and loyalty. "I'm Ruby von der Drachensblut."

"Oh, you're French," Cordelia said.

"No, my dad's German," Ruby said.

"Oh, and what about your mother?"

"She died in a tragic accident," Ruby sighed, her expressive blue eyes filling with sparkling unshed tears. "She was on a cruise in the North Pole and the ship sank. Everyone was saved but her."

"That's terrible," Cordelia said, staring into Ruby's eyes. "Are you wearing colour-changing contact lenses?"

"Oh, everyone asks that," Ruby said, cheerful again, "but my eyesight is exactly 20/20." She seized Cordelia's hand in hers, sure that the girl would be her new best friend. "Why don't you come to tea? You'll love my father's cooking."

"I don't like German food," Cordelia frowned. "It's too heavy."

"Oh, my dad doesn't cook," Ruby smiled. "My father takes care of all of that."

"Your dad and your father?" Cordelia said slowly, looking over Ruby's simple and classic outfit, noting how well her hairstyle accented her high cheekbones that were dusted with the very lightest touch of blusher to compliment her ivory complexion. "No wonder your fashion sense is so good."

"What are you _wearing_?" Ruby's father asked, staring at her in horror.

"A boy in my class gave it to me," Ruby said, touching the cross that hung on a chain about her delicate neck softly. "I think he likes me."

"I'm not having you wearing that sort of rubbish," her father frowned. "Take it off now. Oh, and don't ever go out after dark."

"Oh, don't be silly," her daddy said. "Let the girl experiment with religion if she wants. It doesn't mean she'll actually _believe_ it." He hugged Ruby tightly, whispering, "Don't you worry, you can wear it. And your father's right. Don't ever go out after dark."

"You're too lenient, mo storin," her father said.

"Nonsense, Schatzi," her daddy grinned, tossing his red hair out of his eyes. "Go on, Ruby, you go to that football game. I'm sure the quarterback who gave you the necklace would like to see you wearing it."

"He's not a quarterback, Daddy," she giggled. "He's just a boy in my class - look, he gave me a little box to keep it in. He made it himself, he's very good at woodwork. He gave me this too." She held up a pointed stake, her perfect poise and balance showing the result of many years spent excelling at both gymnastics and ballet. Her parents smiled at her proudly, for she was the very best daughter anyone could want. She put on her favourite lipstick, "Precious Ruby", quickly picked up her beautiful and sinuous pet snake Sue, and dropped her in her backpack for she always watched football on TV when her parents watched the Superbowl, the World Cup, GAA matches and the Japanese football tournaments. "Let's go to the football game, Sue," she laughed.

Ruby was a little worried when she left the crowd of celebrating students. She was very glad that Sunnydale had beaten Neptune by such a large margin, but was a little annoyed at having been delayed by one of the Neptune students who had gone around asking everyone prying questions and who had delayed Ruby's departure. Ruby prided herself on always being polite and friendly, but the nosy girl and her friend had been very rude she felt, and their questions about her parents' whereabouts on the night of the mysterious mass murders were unnecessarily personal. Nicely brought up girls did not imply that other people's parents were members of anarchist terrorist groups, Ruby thought firmly. She gasped in surprise as she was suddenly grabbed from behind and dragged into a dark alleyway.

"Oof, let me go!" she cried. "You don't have to do this!"

The man growled, and then the new student in school suddenly appeared, and kicked him away from Ruby. In a flash the blonde girl had pierced his heart with a stake, and he exploded into dust.

"What are you doing?" Ruby cried, for her parents had taught her that violence never solved anything. "We should have reasoned with him and persuaded him to change his ways!"

The blonde girl just rolled her eyes and left. Ruby sighed. Southern Californian girls were so unladylike. She jumped on the pink Vespa her parents had bought her with the bonus her daddy had got for selling a house to Britney Spears, and hurried home. To her horror she discovered a terrifying figure dressed all in black in front of their villa menacing her dad.

"Daddy!" she screamed.

"Ruby, get out of here! Don't you dare touch her, Voldemort!" her dad cried, his concentration wavering and his next several shots missing the dark figure. Bullets tore through the pink roses Ruby had planted the previous day. She wondered where he had got a gun, and why he was such a bad shot when he was able to always bring home big fluffy animals from the fair that he had won for her.

"Avada Kedavra!" the dark figure hissed, and Ruby's dad clutched at his heart in agony.

"Ruby!" he wailed with his last breath.

"Daddy!" she sobbed in love and terror as the hideous dark figure turned her way. She backed her shiny pink Vespa out into the road, barely hearing the noise of an oncoming car as she did so. She turned her head at the last moment to see a DeLorean come out of nowhere.

"Nooooooooo!" she screamed. But it was too late.

Ruby lay on the ground, her vision slowly returning. _Oh no_, she thought. _I've got to get up and help my Daddy._

"Ruby," she heard. "Ruby, mo mhuirnin, wake up. Wake up!"

"I'm awake," she muttered in annoyance, for her father always woke her up just a little before she wanted to. She clambered to her feet and looked around in confusion. She was standing on a railway platform.

"--ke up, dear," a middle aged lady said, shepherding her children by. "You'll get run over!"

"That already happened," Ruby said. "Where am I?"

"In everyone's way," a mean-looking blond boy said. His friends laughed, and laughed even more to see Ruby look panicked as she peered round, trying to see what had happened to her daddy.

"You're on Platform 9 3/4," the middle aged lady said. "Is this your first term? Don't worry, you'll soon get used to it all. All the transfer students do. Here, you stay with my boy and his friends. That's the boy who lived, you know."

Ruby sat in a carriage with the red-haired boy and his friends. "My name's Ruby," she said. "Where are we going?"

"I'm Ron," the boy said, and pointed at his friends. "That's Harry and that's Hermione."

"We're going to Hogwarts," Hermione said. She looked like she hadn't bothered brushing her hair that day, Ruby saw. "Don't you know what Hogwarts is?" she went on, seeing Ruby's confusion. "Why are you even going to the school?"

"Don't be so nasty!" Ruby cried, her eyes darkening with grief to a deep grey. "My daddy was killed in front of me!"

"Join the club," Harry muttered.

"How did he die?" Hermione asked. "Was it a car accident?"

"No, that was me," Ruby sobbed, fat perfect tears sliding down her smooth alabaster cheeks. "He was killed by a horrible man, though I don't know how." She buried her face in her slender elegant hands and wept inconsolably. "I miss my daddy!" she cried. "How will my father go on without him?" She was embarrassed to have wept in front of other people, so she then pretended to go to sleep, and listened to the others talk about her behind her back. She was used to that, though and didn't mind. After a while she really fell asleep, and dreamed she could feel someone holding her hand.

"Ruby," her father said, his lilting brogue broken and sorrowful. "Please wake up!"

"There's still hope," she heard another voice say. "She has some physical responses."

"Wake up," her father said again. "You're my only hope!"

She woke up and looked around the train carriage.

"Wake up, Ruby," Hermione said again. "We've arrived. Look, there are the carriages to take us up to the school."

They all climbed out of the train and into the carriages pulled by strange looking horses. When they reached the school Ruby saw it was an old castle. Inside the hall was huge and warm.

"Stand with the first years," an older woman said to Ruby. "You'll need to be sorted."

Ruby blushed a translucent scarlet that washed like a sunset over the landscape of her face as the blond boy and his friends laughed and pointed. She blushed more when a battered old hat was placed on her head. It didn't go with anything she was wearing. She felt the hat try to read her mind but her great mental discipline immediately helped her withstand it, for she was well-versed in blocking out her daddy's attempts to discover which boy she liked at any given moment. 

"Slytherin!" the hat cried in a sulky voice as if it were jealous of her skill.

Ron, Harry and Hermione all shook their heads as if they were very disappointed in her, though Ruby couldn't think of a moment when she had been less than pleasant to them. The blond boy and his friends also shook their heads, but Ruby just smiled at them warmly and saw their disdain already beginning to melt in the force of her sunny disposition.

"Hello," she said as cheerfully as she could, for her daddy had always said that a smile was the best way to greet someone, "My name's Ruby von der Drachensblut."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," the blond boy said, looking her up and down from the crown of her red-haired head to the bottom of her shapely legs and her beautiful feet. He indicated two large lumpish boys, a nasty looking girl, an ambiguous person and a blank looking Japanese boy. "This lot are Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Blaise and Nagi. He's new, too."

Crabbe and Goyle just stared at her, and Ruby modestly buttoned her pink mohair cardigan a little higher. Pansy stared at her as if she were a pattern to be emulated when it came to diet and fashion tips. Blaise looked a little odd, and Ruby couldn't decide if she was looking at a boy or a girl. Nagi grunted in disgust and looked away.

Ruby soon settled in and was as good in her new classes as she'd been in her old ones. Her teachers said they'd never seen any student work so hard at promoting unity between the houses, nor one who had caught up so quickly. Every evening Ruby studied in the library, giving Hermione tips on how to complete the latest potions homework. It was only natural that Hermione should ask her advice in setting up a society to promote House Elf Liberation. Hermione had a very silly acronym she wanted to use, but Ruby quickly persuaded her that the House Elf Liberation Party should have a little dignity and be known as HELP.

Hermione stared at Ruby in great admiration and heaved a heavy sigh. "I'd never have thought of it without you," she said, emotion wavering in her voice. "Can we be best friends?"

"I thought you hated Slytherins," Ruby said sadly, for she had often heard her house friends crying over how the rest of the school treated them.

"I was wrong!" Hermione cried, her bosom heaving as she realised her grave error and how she had forgotten to extend to her fellow humans the consideration she extended to house elves. "Forgive me, Ruby! I can't live with myself otherwise!"

"Oh, Hermione!" Ruby cried, and clasped the shaking girl to her, feeling a deep certainty within her that Hermione had changed her views forever.

"Let's go to the kitchens," Hermione whispered, "and see the elves! Let's let them know we're in this together."

"Oh, yes," Ruby said, for she knew that now HELP had them fully working together civil rights for elves couldn't be long in coming.

The kitchens were cavernous and intimidating to Hermione, although not to Ruby, for her father had trained her very well in both cooking and knife fighting. "Look," she said gently as a small hunched figure came closer, "it's an elf." She sighed as she realised the poor thing had a terrible cold and had to clear its throat continually.

"Does it wants its supper, my precious?" the elf said.

"No, thanks," the girls chorused, for they were both watching their weight.

The elf crept closer, its eyes fixed on the ring that Ruby's parents had told her belonged to her dear, dead mother. 

"Give it to us, my precious," it whimpered.

"You want my lipstick?" said Ruby, for although she was on her very last tube of "Precious Ruby" she felt it unfair to deny the poor wizened creature anything that would make its miserable life more pleasant.

The elf rubbed itself up against her leg for a while, which Ruby felt was quite unpleasant, for it was clammy and cold and smelled somewhat of fish. However, before it became too horrible another elf appeared and pulled the first one away, murmuring about phoning home. Hermione clung to Ruby and wept noisily over the plight of the poor oppressed creatures. Ruby patted her shoulder and resolved to teach her to cry prettily.

It was later that evening when Ruby found the Slytherin common room deserted. The fire was burning low and she thought it would be lovely just to sit alone for a while and rest. She curled up in a comfortable armchair and stared sleepily into the red fire, her head drooping lower and lower until her face was totally covered with a shining blaze of red hair that reflected the firelight as if it too were made of flames.

"Ruby, my darling," the fire said to her.

She sat up with a shock and stared at her father's face in the flickering embers.

"Father?" she said.

"Oh, won't you wake up?" her father said. "You're all I have left - please, Ruby, I can't go on having lost both of you."

"Daddy," Ruby sobbed, remembering again how her dear daddy had died. "Oh, Father, help me!"

"You have to wake up," he said. "Now! Please, Ruby, wake up now."

Ruby woke with a start and found that she had fallen fast asleep in the chair. The fire was almost out and she was totally alone in the near complete darkness. She bowed her face down on the arm of the chair and cried as if her loving heart was breaking.

The next morning it was the day of the school portrait. The teachers lined up the students neatly, with the first years in the front row. Then they called Ruby out to stand before them all, to make sure the artist caught her ethereal beauty - set off by Sue wrapped around her slender shoulders like a delightful exotic scarf - to the best advantage. She felt truly cheerful for once as all the teachers and students smiled at her happily, basking in the light of her elegance and charm.

No sooner were the preliminary sketches completed than Ruby heard a familiar noise.

"Oh, quick!" she cried, looking round in fear. "Everyone get to safety!"

The students and teachers looked at her in bewilderment and then it was too late, for the DeLorean came out of nowhere and ploughed through the assembled teachers. Professor McGonagall turned into a bird and flew to safety, while Professor Flitwick climbed onto a prefect's shoulders. Professor Snape leapt back as the car tore straight through Professor Binns, who didn't stop talking about the history of magic to Professors Trelawney and Moody. All the students screamed as Professor Trelawney and Professor Moody were flung into the air to land in awkward positions on the grass. The DeLorean flickered out of existence, leaving only pain and horror behind it.

"Damn," Dumbledore said. "Where am I supposed to get supply teachers at this stage of the school year?'

As if someone had anticipated this very need, an owl fluttered in and dropped a letter into his outstretched hand.

"Good news, children," he said. "A new teacher of divination and one for the defence against the dark arts are on their way right now! Bad news, staff, an auror is coming to carry out an audit."

Everyone cheered, rather weakly.

All the students were very excited to meet their new teachers. Professor Crawford was a tall, taciturn American who always knew about student mischief before it began. Although his divination classes were efficiently run and his predictions always accurate, the students were soon tired of him assigning detention for things they hadn't yet done. Professor Farfarello was an enthusiastic teacher, although Madam Pomfrey had to ask him to please stop knifing the students in class.

Ruby stopped dead in the doorway when she had her first defence against the dark arts class with Professor Farfarello. He was her _father_. She could barely breathe, she felt so shocked.

"Father," she breathed, walking slowly forward. "You found me! Oh, take me home, please!"

"Sit down, Miss von der Drachensblut," he said in his familiar, much loved voice. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"But--" she said, tears in her musical voice.

"Sit down, girl! Now class, we'll discuss hand to hand fighting with trolls."

She sank into her seat, seeing that he looked younger than she remembered. He seemed only a few years older than she was herself, and his accent didn't have the faint overlay of the midwest that she remembered. She stared at him in fascination until he glared at her from his single golden eye.

"Miss von der Drachensblut! Must you develop a crush on me on my very first day?"

Ruby bowed her head as everyone laughed. How awful that they should think she was in love with her own father, even if he was younger and prettier than she remembered. She most certainly was not! She loved him only as a father, and she was going to make him remember her if it was the last thing she did.

It was even worse when the auror, Mr Schuldig, arrived. Ruby saw him as he sat at the teachers' table for breakfast, and clutched at her neat, pert bosom in surprise.

"Daddy!" she whispered, so that her friends wouldn't hear.

"What did you say?" Hermione murmured, putting a hand on her friend's arm.

"Nothing," Ruby said, looking at the way her daddy's wild red hair gleamed in the morning light and the familiar way he snarled at people who expected him to make sense before he'd had a cup of coffee. She shook her head sadly. They didn't have coffee at Hogwarts. He looked so young, so handsome, so wickedly amused at everyone around him. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him as he shook off the teacher's greetings. He looked directly at her and winked, smoothing his bottle-green robes down over his youthful but well-defined musculature. She blushed, and he grinned in a way she found most disturbing. This could not be her daddy, could it? He didn't usually wear so many colours all at the same time. For the first time she wondered exactly where she had come from, and which of her parents was actually her father.


End file.
